On Sunday, the day before the fifth anniversary of the attack
on the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers Alliance
(www.twintowersalliance.com) is holding a rally at Central Park's
Naumberg bandshell at 4 p.m. Although the organization is waging
what some may see as a hopeless battle, I completely support its
position that unless the twin towers rise again, the terrorists
will have won.
Had a rally been held in the months after September 11, 2001, the
response would have been enormous, because Americans were then
united. We understood that we would be waging a difficult war
against terrorists and their sponsors, and that all of us were
targets.Those who show up on Sunday will be the ones who still
remember that.
It is our nation's dissonance that has prolonged our presence in
Iraq - it has encouraged the Islamic jihadists to battle on and
recruit others. That polarization can be traced to the deliberate
amnesia regarding what transpired on that Tuesday morning five
years ago. I, for one, will never forget that day.
The telephone rang. It was my son, Evan, calling me from
Manhattan."Are you watching TV?" he asked. "A
plane just flew into the World Trade Center," he said, and
before I could turn on the set, he gasped, "Oh my God,
another one just hit the other tower."
The news anchors soon announced that the Pentagon had also been
attacked and that another hijacked plane might be headed toward
the Capitol. The worst was yet to come.
As I later watched the first tower crumble in a cloud of dust, I
felt an indescribable sorrow for my country. I started singing
"God Bless America" when the second tower collapsed.
There could be no mistake: We were at war and our enemies were
fanatical maniacs.
Three days later, in the National Cathedral, a choir sang
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the hymn born during
the Civil War. At the opening lines, "Mine eyes have seen
the coming of the glory of our Lord," the camera passed over
those present - presidents, statesmen, and survivors wiping the
tears from their eyes.
President Bush said, "Just three days removed from these
events, Americans do not have the distance of history, but our
responsibility to history is clear."
"That responsibility," he continued, is "to answer
these attacks, and rid the world of evil." We all nodded in
agreement because we here in New York knew what evil looked like
up close. It was a devil's face in the black clouds rising from
the burning towers. It was pure evil that drove the doomed
workers to leap from them, some holding hands on their way to
eternity.
Remember September 21, Bette Midler singing "The Wind
Beneath My Wings" at Yankee Stadium? Remember the camera
shots of the mourners for the World Trade Center missing openly
grieving as she sang? I remember seeing Governor Pataki wiping
the tears from his eyes, Mayor Giuliani hanging his head as if in
prayer. President Clinton and Senator Clinton sat stoically in
their seats, and I was mystified by their reserve.
If we understood then what we were fighting, why don't we know it
now? Because we have adversaries among us.
Michael Moore; Bill Maher; Moveon.org; Hollywood stars; Howard
Dean, and journalists in the mainstream press broke our
solidarity and replaced our resolve with trepidation and doubt.
They changed the enemy's name to Bush and foolishly divided a
nation, and while they all had a perfect right to express their
opinion, I have no doubt that their vehemence came from
arrogance, ignorance, and resentment over a lost election.
To them I say: Vice President Gore chose to recount the votes
only in Democratic counties, not the entire state. This
demonstrated a pettiness and lack of integrity that made him
ill-suited for the nation's highest elected office.
Nevertheless, the lies from his supporters in the party and the
press did their job well. They put words into Mr. Bush's mouth
that were never said. They still insist that we should not have
gone to Iraq, even though our goal was to end terrorism and get
rid of those who sponsored it.
Saddam was one of the biggest supporters of terror. Abdul Rahman
Yasin, an Iraqi native who mixed the chemicals for the 1993 World
Trade Center attack, moved back to Iraq after the bombing and
actually was paid by Saddam, who was also paying $25,000 to
families of suicide bombers. Our goal was to end all terrorism.
Where did these loons think Al Qaeda would run after we hit
Afghanistan?
The "quagmire" is not in Iraq but in the minds of those
in denial about what happened five years ago. It's time to
rebuild our towers and renew our resolve, or we'll soon have new
anniversaries to mourn our dead.